


Ninety-Eight Days Preceding Collapse

by ColdGoldLazarus



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Aunn and Yukari are there if you squint, Biting off more than I can chew, Canon Rewrite, Gen, Makai - Freeform, Pre-Canon, This can only end well, Touhou PC-98 Era, cameos out the wazoo, continuity union, everything will be fire, extensive headcanons, just like always, mild Reimu/Meira, this will end poorly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-24 12:56:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13811640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColdGoldLazarus/pseuds/ColdGoldLazarus
Summary: After Gensokyo's previous Shrine Maiden passes away, the role falls to a young girl named Reimu. Her new path is a treacherous one, as powers held in stalemate by her predecessor are suddenly free to act once more, and even as she faces an unprecedented string of incidents, something far darker looms on the horizon...





	1. A New Ending

** Act 1: Highly Responsive To Prayers (The Shattered Shrine Incident) **

**Chapter 1: A New Ending**

* * *

 

It was evening in the human village. The farmers were heading in from the far fields, and the roads were busy as everyone took care of final errands for the day, before the sun set and they would retire into the safety of their homes. However, despite the bustle, if one observed long enough, it wasn’t hard to notice that nobody strayed too close to the schoolhouse this particular night. Inoffensive on any other occasion, the building currently played host to a meeting of vast importance.

Out front, three teenage girls sat along the porch’s edge, legs dangling over the sparse grass edging the road. The first one was fidgeting constantly, barely able to contain her excitement. Her long lavender ponytail swung back and forth as she glanced at the other two girls, gauging them as her rivals. The second girl, with blonde curls kept barely under control by a tattered bow with cherry-shaped ornaments, seemed far more pensive. She could hear brief snippets of conversation from inside, and did her best to listen in from where she sat; occasionally looking over her shoulder at the shadows cast on the rice-paper walls.

The third... was asleep. Snoring slightly, complete with a snot bubble, she leaned against a wooden support beam without a care in the world. Her dark purple hair was long and straight, bangs cut blunt in a strictly utilitarian fashion.

Just as the sun slipped below the horizon, twilight beginning in earnest, the door slid open and three women stepped out. The one on the left was more elderly, with grey hair and a sour expression, wearing an elaborate robe of yellow-gold and green; a rare luxury in a village such as this. The woman in the middle was younger-looking by far, seemingly barely out of her twenties. She wore a long blue and white dress with a strange pagoda-like hat, and carried a book under her arm, self-consciously adjusting her silvery-blue locks with the other hand. The third, standing further back on the right, looked neither old nor young, yet both at once; her coquettishly short golden curls contrasting with her wizened eyes. She was the tallest of the three, and her presence was magnified by the assortment of golden-furred fox tails radiating out behind her like a peacock’s spread. They marked her as something distinctly inhuman, but she composed herself with outmost grace and politeness, expression carefully neutral but not uninviting.

“It has been decided,” declared the middle woman, before adopting a gentler, teacherly tone. “Satsuki, Meira,” the blonde and lavender-haired girls straightened up, “you’re free to go home now.”

The blonde nodded, expression conflicted between disappointment and relief as she slipped off the porch and began walking away, only to stop upon realizing she lacked a companion. Meira was still staring at the trio in shock. “Wha… why? Ms. Kamishirasawa…”

The teacher averted her eyes. “It was decided by all of us. Now please, run along.”

The older woman spoke up now, shooting the teacher and the fox woman a dirty glance. “ _Most of us_. If I had had my way, you would have been chosen for sure.”

“I… see.” Slowly, the lavender-haired girl also stood and wandered off, with the dazed air of someone displaced from reality. Keine watched her go with a worried frown, but though her instincts were screaming to keep an eye on the usually-headstrong student, her duties would not permit her to do so for the time being.

Instead, she stood over the still-snoozing third girl, crossing her arms intimidatingly. “ _Reimu._ ”

“Zzzzzzzzz-Snnk-bwuh!” The girl in question spluttered aware sharply, looking about in momentary alarm before looking up at the teacher with a groggy, half-lidded gaze. “Oh, Ms. Kamishirasawa. Are you done? Can I go now?”

Keine was already beginning to regret this decision, but she pressed on. “No, actually; we’re going to need you to come with us. You’ve been chosen to become the new Hakurei Shrine Maiden.”

...

“Oh.”

* * *

 “It was not a decision made lightly, and there were a number of factors to be considered; ideally the selection process would have been less rushed. The simplest factor was of course family. I’m sure you don’t want to talk about it, but the fact that your parents are out of the picture pointed in your direction. Of course, where it gets messier is when political concerns get involved; the shrine maiden is meant to stand between humans and youkai, and while that usually means exterminating youkai that overstep their bounds, it was important to find someone who wouldn’t put the interests of one side too much over the other. ...So naturally the Hieda matriarch wanted the most potentially human-biased of the candidates, rather than you.” Keine chuckled to herself, then glanced over at her audience. “Reimu?”

The girl had clearly tuned her out, (not for the first time, the teacher noted, struggling to swallow frustration) staring entranced at their surroundings; perhaps naturally so as this was the first time she’d been a significant way outside the village walls. The sun crested the eastern hills about two hours earlier, and now the teacher and the girl were traveling side-by-side along a narrow but well-maintained road, sloping gradually upward as it wound through the hills to the south. There was slight risk of youkai or the odd mischievous fairy here, but it was one of the safer places in Gensokyo aside from the village itself; Keine felt confident that even she would be adequate defense if something hostile crossed their path.

Soon, they came to a flatter, wider section of the road, leading up to a steeper set of stairs built into the hillside ahead. At the top, a looming Torii gate, clearly old but in good condition, and at the bottom, a single Komainu statue. Keine gave it an aside glance as they passed; she could never prove anything since she visited here infrequently, but it always seemed to be in a slightly different spot each time. There was also a stream of water dripping from one carved eye, even though it hadn’t rained in a few days… Strange.

Shrugging and moving on, Keine directed a still-distracted Reimu to move up the steps first, the teacher following closely. And then they stopped again upon reaching the top, permitting Reimu to gape at the sight before her; even though she was more familiar with the location, Keine couldn’t help but crack a grin at the teenager’s wide-eyed awe. “Welcome to the Hakurei Shrine.”

It wasn’t a huge building, or even particularly extravagant; the Hieda abode back in the village was considerably larger and infinitely fancier. Yet with the breeze wafting through the shide strips suspended on prayer rope, and the warm sunlight streaming through the treetops at just the right angle, the clean, humble structure simply looked magical. For Keine there was an undercurrent of melancholy, too, given how empty the grounds were, but for better or for worse this aspect of the scene seemed to be lost on her young charge.

Watching her now, taking the first steps out onto the grounds without her guidance, Keine began feeling better about her choice. The other two candidates  _did_  have genuine promise; Satsuki her diplomatic nature and Meira her passion and training, but both came with major inherent drawbacks as well. The musician wasn’t the most assertive at the best of times, even malleable, something the youkai representative had avoided alluding to outright even as they argued for her appointment, while the samurai-in-training had a certain bloodthirstiness about her that the Hieda matriarch seemed to consider a strength, but the schoolteacher knew would likely invite harsh retribution if brought to bear against the wrong foes.

That wasn’t to say the emotionally distant and chronically absent-minded Reimu was the most ideal option, either, especially given that she was two years younger and considerably smaller than either of the other two. Still, there was just something about her that inspired confidence in the teacher, a fine mixture of seriousness and wide-eyed idealism that seemed perfectly suited for the task at hand. As reluctant as she was to send any of her students into such a dangerous role, Keine felt that she above anyone else would be the most likely to thrive, given time and proper training. That is why she had argued for the purple-haired girl, knowing that she would give the position the solemnity and balance it deserved.

* * *

Reimu was already feeling bored and tired. Ms. Kamishirasawa had shown her around the shrine, and now was launching into another long explanation that said too few things in far too many words. She was more interested in the big white-and-black orb sitting on a cushion in the corner, but Keine had warned her not to touch that until some sort of binding ritual was done. Bleh.

Fortunately, respite came when Hieda and a few more authorities from the village entered. “Can you stay here a moment?” Keine asked, “I just need to talk to them.” Naturally, the moment the teacher’s back was turned, Reimu stepped swiftly yet lightly to the nearest screen door and slipped outside.

She hadn’t really put too much thought into it beyond the basic act of disobedience, done half out of spite, half to escape the stifling atmosphere inside. But now that she was outside, she heard a strange noise that had been absent earlier; glancing to the left she found there was a huge crowd of villagers out in the main clearing. At first she considered going right back inside, but the mental image of Keine prattling on about something or other stayed her hand. Instead, she found herself eyeing the treeline, not too far from the side of the shrine itself…

A minute or so later, having looped around by using the forest as cover, the young girl unobtrusively made her way into the back of the crowd, lurking as the adults talked overhead. She drifted a bit, letting the tide of muttered conversation flow over her, until something caught her ear.

“For a Shrine Maiden, she lasted quite a long time, didn’t she? I heard she died in her sleep, peacefully. We all know she was getting on in years…” One man was arguing. Reimu suddenly imagined herself, old and wrinkly and white-haired, bent over with a cane, and shuddered. No, please.

“No, no,” the man’s wife shot back. “She wasn’t that old. I was told she died in battle with a monstrous youkai, overwhelmed by dark magic!” Now Reimu couldn’t help but picture herself being obliterated by a wave of fiery energy. Her lips curled downward in a frown.

Another woman cut in here. “Yes and no; from what I heard, she won, and solved a huge incident before any of us had an idea, but died afterwards from her wounds.” Reimu’s mind once again conjured an image, the girl pulling herself across the ground, only to collapse on the shrine steps with Xes in her eyes.

“I just wanna know, then,” the first woman responded, “What happened to the body, huh?” A foreboding silence followed that. Quietly, Reimu hugged herself and wandered back out of the crowd, feeling very different than when she entered.

* * *

After that, the rest of the day passed in a hazy rush, only a few moments surviving to stand out in her memory after the fact.

“Reimu? Where did you go?” Keine had her hands on her hips, a mix of worry and frustration in her tone as she glanced about the shrine’s main room.

The teen crept past behind her her into one of the side-rooms, before doing an about-face and walking right back out. “Sorry, I was just in here,” she lied, “Doing a thing... with the stuff.”

The schoolteacher blinked back at her in confusion. “But I just looked in there…” She shook her head. “I must be more tired than I thought. Come on, we have a lot more preparation to do.” Reimu at least had the grace to feel bad about the misdirection, but relief more so. After that, she kept her head down.

\---

“So I have to wear this now?” Reimu frowned at her reflection in the mirror as she fingered the sleeve of her haori. It seemed too big on her small frame, and the hakama were even worse, falling over her feet and dragging on the wooden floor. Not to mention how thick the cloth was, the wool too warm for this summer weather. The bow… okay, the bow was a revelation, comfortable and cute, and made her appear just that much taller. She liked the bow. But the rest, not so much.

“I know it feels uncomfortable now, but you’ll grow into it in time.” Keine consoled. Reimu just grunted noncommittally and scratched at her armpit, wondering if she could talk the village tailor into hacking off the sleeves.

\---

“From this moment forth, you are no longer Ito Reimu,” someone said, “But of the Hakurei. Do you accept?”

Honestly? She wasn’t sure. Still, she knew what she was  _supposed_  to say, and dutifully followed Keine’s earlier instructions. “I accept, and take the name of Hakurei, and the duty to watch over the Barrier with it.” Her voice sounded weak and warbly, not at all suited to the occasion. Only now was it beginning to sink in that from this moment on, her life would be set on this course.

She did her best to suppress the suffocating feeling rising in the back of her throat, and moved on to the next part of the ritual.

\---

She stood now on the front porch, staring out at the sea of faces before her. On each side were the two elders who had guided her through the rituals, while Keine had taken a spot in the crowd, shooting her an encouraging grin. She also spotted the Hieda woman, watching her with a dark expression, and Satsuki, who seemed much more cheerful now than the day previous. Meira… was absent, and Reimu suppressed a disappointed sigh.

And at the very back of the crowd, still visible courtesy of her unusual height, was that unfamiliar fox-woman, her arms folded beneath her bosom as she watched with an enigmatic grin. One of her ears flicked when she noticed Reimu staring at her, and she tilted her head forward a touch. Taking the hint, Reimu returned her gaze to Keine.

“This is our new shrine maiden,” began one of the elders. “She has taken the Hakurei name and made her vows.”

“And her essence has been intertwined with the power of the barrier that protects us all from the outside world.” The other finished.

After a pause, the crowd as one being bowed to her, just for a moment before straightening back up. And it was done. The crowd began to disperse, silence becoming whispering becoming a dull roar of conversation.

“She’s so  _small_ ,” someone remarked, and Reimu recognized them as one of the women she’d eavesdropped on earlier. “Can she really handle it?”

_I really hope so._

* * *

By the time the last of the villagers had vanished back down the road, the sun was setting once more - almost twenty-four hours since Reimu was told she’d been chosen, and she was already installed - and was still struggling to wrap her head around it all. So… she opted not to worry about it, preferring instead to sit on the front step and watch the sun set beside Youkai Mountain. The Torii Gate out front marked a gap in the trees, and the high hill the Shrine was situated atop gave her a great vantage point to see the… suddenly  _very_  distant-looking human village to the north-northwest.

Loneliness suddenly began to set in, and she found herself standing up without really thinking of why. She took a step toward the stairs, and then another-

And then Keine laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be scary at first. Believe me, if I could take you back and let you live with me, I  _would_ … but as Shrine Maiden, this is where you’re expected to live, now. I’m… sorry to ask this of you. I  _know_  you can do it, but it doesn’t make it any less easy at first.” The teacher didn’t meet Reimu’s gaze, but her shame was clear to see. “Please forgive me for putting you here.”

Reimu frankly didn’t know how to feel; she was used to the kind but stern schoolteacher who tolerated little tomfoolery, but she’d been alarmingly lenient all day, and this display of outright sentimentalism was impossible to deal with coherently. So she shrugged, “It’s not your fault.”

“If… if you’re sure.” Keine didn’t seem convinced, but withdrew her hand and made to leave. “I’ve got classes in the morning, but I’ll come check on you tomorrow afternoon. Stay safe, okay?” And with that, she vanished down the steps.

Reimu reluctantly turned back toward the shrine, only to find the elders from before standing in her way. Both were wrinkly and hunched, and she could never tell if they were men or women.

“Tomorrow, there will be a teacher coming to instruct you in the performing of your duties.” The first informed her.

“And he will complete the final rituals to permit you full use of the Hakurei power.” The other continued. “He has served well many generations of Hakurei maidens, now.”

Reimu hoped he wouldn’t be as creepy as these two. “You are a Shrine Maiden now.” Both said simultaneously, only adding to the effect.

“Your duty is to remain highly responsive to prayers…” the first added.

“To sustain the barrier that protects us from the outside world…” from the second.

“And to preserve the balance between humans and youkai in this land.” They finished, again in unison.

“We’re all counting on you, now.” The Hieda matriarch added from behind them, now giving Reimu an open scowl. “Don't let us down.” They too left the grounds to journey back to the village, and Reimu was suddenly glad to be spending the night as far from them as possible.

\---

After wandering inside, changing into pajamas, and completing her evening tasks, Reimu found herself unwilling to crawl into the prepared futon just yet. Her gaze wandered about the shrine, past the gohei leaning in the corner, past the low table with the stacks of ofuda left by the prior Maiden, and zeroing in on the softly-glowing orb still situated on a cushion. It was about as big as her head, perhaps a little more so, and had the traditional yin-yang symbol seemingly swimming in its depths - no matter which direction she looked at it from, it looked exactly the same, like it was twisting to always face her. Stepping closer, she reached out...

**_Zap!_ **

Pain flared all down the length of Reimu’s arm, a sharp burst of energy having leapt straight into her finger and fried her nerves. Clutching the wounded limb tight to her chest, Reimu retreated, suddenly wishing she’d paid Keine’s earlier warning more heed.

* * *

It was a poor night’s rest for Reimu; between her own fitful slumber, and shooting awake in stark terror at every creak of wood or hoot of an owl, she may as well not have slept at all. The sun was high in the sky by the time she dragged herself out of bed, and nearly noon once she’d had breakfast and freshened herself up some. The dark circles under her eyes still made her look like death warmed over, but though her head swam dangerously, she pushed herself to stay awake; who knew when that teacher would be arriving? Not to mention what he’d look like, since the elders had implied he’d been around a while. Was it possible he wasn’t even a human?

Still, she was starting to feel a little better about this whole thing. She was the Shrine Maiden now, she had a decent-enough idea of what that entailed, and soon enough she'd be learning  _how_  to do it best. For now, she was content to let the bright sunshine wake her further, walking circles around the front grounds as she waited for her teacher to arrive.

So caught up in her thoughts was she, she didn’t notice the attack from the treeline until it was almost upon her. Looking like something was burrowing just beneath the surface, it left a furrow of upturned dirt as it raced toward her at superhuman speeds. She dove to the side just in time - instead, it disappeared beneath the front of the shrine… and moments later erupted upwards, blowing the building apart with its sheer force. Reimu was blown backwards by the blast, landing precariously at the very top of the Torii staircase.

Once the ringing in her ears died down, Reimu crawled to her feet and beheld the devastation before her. Her first day on the job, and the shrine… was ruined. She didn’t know who, she didn’t know why, and wasn’t even clear on how, but there was one thing she knew for sure.

“Somebody’s gonna  _pay_  for this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: "No, you stupid ball, come  _back!_ " Reimu begins her search, and encounters technical difficulties.


	2. The Guardian

**Chapter 2: The Guardian**  
98 Days Remaining

* * *

Reimu needed to think. After taking a moment to steady her breathing and calm down, she glanced around at the scene. On further inspection, the shrine was more intact than she’d initially thought; even though floorboards and pieces of roofing alike were scattered across the grounds, the walls of the building had somehow survived the blast more-or-less intact; it seemed the explosion had been mainly directed upward. She wasn’t sure what to expect from the interior, but at least the building seemed salvageable.

Then there was the trail of upturned dirt leading diagonally across the yard and away into the forest. However the attack worked, this was clearly the path it had taken to get here, and Reimu was confident that if she followed it to the other end, she’d find her culprit. Of course, the problem with that was that someone powerful enough to do  _this_... would doubtless be able to make easy work of a small teenaged human girl like herself. At the very least, she should arm herself before charging off somewhere.

To that end, she picked her way through the debris and in through the front door. The roof was almost completely gone, save for a bit around the far corners, but the floor was fortunately more intact - there was a gaping hole in the middle, but even avoiding the unsteady planks just around it, she was able to skirt her way along the edges just fine. It also meant that most of the items set up around the walls were similarly intact; the paper ofuda had been blown about and scattered, and the gohei had fallen over, but the Yin-Yang Orb was still sitting on the cushion, unmoved in the slightest.

After collecting the gohei and gathering up a small stack of ofuda, she made her way toward the orb, only to recall the previous night. Was it worth the risk? Could she afford to leave it? She once more reached out…

**_Zap!_ **

And was once more painfully shocked. Cradling her arm, Reimu glared down at the sphere with the most intense expression of disgust she could muster. For its part, the orb didn’t seem phased.

Reimu held the stare for several seconds, before sighing and shaking her head. “What am I doing…” She gave the recalcitrant sphere a soft  _whap_  with her gohei, not really expecting anything to come of it - and so was surprised when the heavy orb, rather than the thin fragile rod, reacted. As if repelled, the ball pushed further down into the cushion, before bouncing upward and right past Reimu’s head. “Wait, what?”

By the time she turned around, the sphere collided with one of the bent planks around the hole, and rocketed back toward her. She instinctively shielded her face, expecting the worst - and was again unharmed, the orb bouncing off the gohei and out the front door. She stared after it blankly, watching as it continued to bounce back and forth across the yard, redirected whenever it hit one of the chunks of debris left by the blast.

“...Oh…” The dots connected very suddenly, and Reimu found herself grinning. “I can work with this.” As long as she could keep the orb from hitting herself, she suddenly had a rather powerful weapon to use against the culprit, or any other dangerous youkai she crossed paths with. As long as she could control it, anyway…

Wait a second.

"No, you stupid ball, come  _back!_ " The orb had gone careening off into the forest - in almost the complete opposite direction the furrow led. Reimu set off running, almost tripping over herself several times before finally just hiking up her baggy clothes and sprinting after the runaway sphere. She passed it a little ways into the woods, whirling around and taking another swing… as it passed right over her head and kept on going. This was going to take a while.

* * *

“Tag, you’re it!” A small green-haired fairy giggled as she chased her fleeing companion, dodging shards of ice as she did so. Her target ducked and bobbed through the high branches, shooting additional waves of hail at strategic times to fend her off, but it would only buy her so much time. Daiyousei had a  _plan_ , and Cirno was just about to fall into her trap.

Unfortunately, the pursuer’s plan was reliant on  _not_  getting steamrolled out of the blue before reaching the clearing up ahead. Just as she reached the treeline, she felt an abrupt sensation of impact and burning before her vision went black.

\---

When consciousness returned, Daiyousei found herself in a tree hollow, feeling bizarrely refreshed, and it didn’t take long to realize what had happened. Being reborn from nature… naturally implied that she had to have died first. How inconvenient.

Fortunately, she hadn’t actually rematerialized that far from the clearing, and it only took a half-minute’s flight to bring her back in view of Cirno, who was glancing about in confused dismay. “Dai… chan? Are you there?”

“I’m here!” Daiyousei called out, and in the next instant found herself being crushed in a tight embrace. She hoped she wouldn’t wind up dying all over again; once was one thing, but twice in the same day was just downright  _embarrassing_.

“Where did you go?” her friend asked, finally letting go, but the green-haired fairy was distracted at something visible over Cirno’s shoulder; through a gap in the treeline, she saw some sort of big ball bouncing off of tree trunks. Off to one side, there was also a small human girl, tripping over her own oversized clothes and muttering a long barely-audible stream of expletives as she chased after it.

“Uh, decided to try to go around another way. Here, why don’t we go  _this_  way, and keep our heads down.” If she admitted to having been attacked, however unintentionally, Cirno would doubtless try to go after the perpetrator, and Daiyousei had a sneaking suspicion such an encounter wouldn’t improve the day for anyone involved. And so she led the ice fairy deeper into the woods, further from the strange sight she’d just witnessed, vaguely pondering how the Shrine Maiden kept shrinking every couple of decades.

“Oh, and by the way, you’re it.”

* * *

By the time she’d managed to catch up to the Yin-Yang Orb and successfully corner it in the roots of a particularly large tree, Reimu was looking and feeling considerably more bedraggled. Her hair was full of leaves and the odd twig, her hakama ripped up by bramble and underbrush, and her earlier exhaustion had returned in full force. She was half-tempted to return to the shrine and sleep before setting out again, but decided instead to just head directly westward.

Pushing the orb ahead of her with taps of the gohei and the odd kick, (she found that as long as it touched her sandals rather than her toes, she could avoid getting zapped again) it was slow going, but better than losing control of the thing again.

It was mid-afternoon now, the sun still overhead but beginning to slant. She could occasionally spot fairies flitting about through the treetops, but for some reason none came near her - usually, she’d heard, the creatures wouldn’t hesitate to play pranks on lonely travelers. At one point she did spot someone -or rather, some _thing_ \- else drifting past at one point, but she ducked behind a tree and waited for it to leave, rather than inspect it too closely.

Eventually, she came across a wide furrow of upturned earth, and smirked. Jackpot; she was back on track.

As she followed it, she began to consider what to do when she found her quarry. Her orb seemed like the best bet if she wanted to any real damage, but she couldn’t afford to go chasing after it again in the middle of battle. To complicate matters, the trees were starting to thin out, and the already-hilly landscape grew even steeper; she realized with a start that she was drawing dangerously close to the Youkai Mountain. She had heard the Tengu who lived there were fiercely territorial, with wolflike guards who could see for miles. Could she really face one down right off the bat?

That concern was brushed aside as the gully the trail led her into steadily deepened into an all-out ravine, hemmed in on both sides by steep cliff faces. She couldn’t be sure, of course, but somehow she sensed she was drawing nearer to her destination.

Indeed, after a rightward turn, the gulch widened out into a dead-end canyon, with a small but impressive-looking temple tucked away at the back. It was open-air, constructed of polished red rock, but with a pagoda roof over the otherwise fairly western-looking structure. The path she’d been following led directly to the front steps… and then  _through_  them, the stone visibly cracked down the middle. That couldn’t be good for business, and she wondered why someone would ruin their own temple just to destroy the shrine.

Time to find out. Kicking the Yin-Yang Orb up the steps, she ascended after it into a wide area lined with pillars. Up ahead were three vertical slabs of smooth black obsidian, surprisingly unbroken even though the crack led straight to the base of the middle one.

Once her eyes adjusted to the sudden gloom, she realized she wasn’t alone, either, stepping back in surprise - there was a man ahead of her, kneeling over the crack and muttering worriedly to himself. He appeared perfectly human, clad in white and dark blue robes, with a tall cylindrical hat also in blue. Regardless, Reimu kept her guard up as she called out. “Hello?”

He jumped up in shock, staring at her a moment before hastily bowing. “Greetings, Hakurei. May I inquire as to what brings you here so… immediately, after your appointment to the position?”

“I came because you blew up the Shrine!” She accused, pointing her gohei at him in a threatening manner. She hope it was threatening, anyway.

“It  _blew up?_  Oh, dear, this could be…  _extremely_ ruinous.” He fretted to himself, before meeting her gaze again. “T’was not I who committed this deed, though I would be most willing to assist you in locating the true culprit in any way I can.”

“Oh yeah?” The girl challenged, gesturing at the huge fissure in the stone floor. “Then why does this lead  _straight_ here? I followed this all the way from the shrine!”

He blinked, staring first at the crack and then at her before speaking again. “I see. Lady Hakurei, are you knowledgeable of who I am, or what this place  _is?_ ”

“Uh… maybe?” She responded lamely. “I mean, I just started this job today, okay?”

Suddenly, the man transformed, features morphing until Reimu found herself facing a long-haired redheaded woman. The white robes were the same, but now she wore a red skirt and blue vest, along with a golden headband with tassels that waved in the breeze. And where the man… or male form...? had been rather quiet, submissive, and overly formal, now she looked down on Reimu with a half-exasperated, half-contemptuous smirk. “Well,  _obviously_. It looks like you haven’t even been properly bound to the Yin-Yang Orb, meaning you haven’t met Genji yet, have you? How do you expect to do  _anything_  as a Shrine Maiden in this sort of state?” Reimu’s indignant squawk was interrupted as she plowed onward. “For your information,  _I_  am Shingyoku, guardian of the Triptych Gate and one of the closest allies of the Hakurei and Yakumo. I would be the  _last_  person to even consider attacking the Shrine.”

Reimu, for her part, was torn between shock at the bizarre transformation and frustration with the sudden rude tone. “Why… you…”

She sighed, clearing her head and trying to look at the situation logically. “Alright, if you  _aren’t_  the culprit, then how do you explain the trail leading straight here?”

Shingyoku rolled her eyes. “This here,” she said, waving an arm at the set of obsidian slabs, “Is the Triptych Gate, a means of access to several alternate planes, from the Netherworld to Makai and many more besides. It is my duty to guard this gate, and prevent the wrong sorts of people from going out to places they don’t belong - or others from getting  _in_  here to Gensokyo.”

She abruptly shifted back into the male form, continuing more quietly. “Earlier this day, I bore witness as the gate opened behind me, and this passed through before I could stop it. As its destination lay outside my jurisdiction, I have since been concerned primarily with how to repair the damages here. As should you be; if the Shrine of Hakurei was directly damaged, the barrier protecting Gensokyo is at extreme risk. I implore you to turn back now, and return only once the crisis has passed and your capabilities are stronger.”

Reimu considered for a moment, but shook her head. “No, I have to do this now. What if I go back, fix the shrine, only for it to get wrecked again? I need to exterminate whoever did this before they can do any more damage.”

Shingyoku remained male, but his tone became more forceful as he stared her down. “Please, Hakurei.  _Turn back now._  If need be, I  _will_  stand in your way, for your own sake. The paths this gate leads to are dangerous ones indeed, even for those far more experienced than yourself.”

Reimu was starting to get fed up now. “You want to stand in my way? Fine. That just means I’ll have to go straight through you, too!” Before Shingyoku could react, she punted the orb straight into him.

He doubled over in pain, but the next instant glared up at her, expression dark, before transforming again. This time, he changed not into another humanoid form, but rather a massive sphere, much like the Yin-Yang Orb itself, but crackling with power. Reimu dove to the side as it rolled at her, accelerating until hitting one of the bordering pillars, and the whole temple shook in response. Shrinking back down into her female form, Shingyoku released a spread of energy pellets from her outstretched palm, which Reimu hastily dodged again, landing just in time to smack the Yin-Yang Orb back at her opponent.

The battle continued in much this manner, with Shingyoku alternating between sudden, terrifying rushes in sphere form, and firing Danmaku in his/her humanoid forms. Reimu found herself hastily dodging the attacks, and whenever possible trying to direct the Yin-Yang Orb toward the guardian, as it ping-ponged chaotically around the temple. She even tried countering the danmaku attacks with her ofuda, but while successful in expending the bullets, the papers burned up in the process; leaving the Shrine Maiden wide-eyed and even more determined not to get hit.

Finally, they circled back to their original positions, Shingyoku standing before the Triptych Gate, Reimu sliding to a stop at the temple entrance just in time to do a hard kick at the Yin-Yang Orb, sending it rocketing to bounce off the Gate itself, and crash square into the back of the guardian’s head. Shingyoku fell to her knees, panting heavily, and raised a hand. “I concede.” Reimu was only too happy to oblige, collecting the orb right before it could bounce outside and then sitting down, exhaustion battling with the sudden adrenaline rush.

Finally, the guardian found his feet once more, cocking his head to one side as he fixed her with a questioning stare. “It would appear that you don’t need to be fully attuned to the orb to use it effectively. You are a strange individual indeed.” Shifting to female, she put a hand behind her head, laughing in sudden embarrassment. “I just realized... I forgot to ask your name. Could just keep calling you Hakurei, of course, but you’re certainly one to remember.”

“Ruh… Reimu,” she managed between huffs, catching her own breath again. “So are... you going... to let me through now?”

Shingyoku sighed, considering. “Maybe. Depends on where this attack came from; if it was the Dream World or Makai, you’re still going to be way out of your depth like this. A more physical location… I’d still be reluctant to let you through, but you’d at least stand half a chance.” She tapped the left slab, then shifted to male form and tapped the right. Magical energy swirled across the surface, before uniting in the middle and spreading outward to cover the entire surface.

It gradually resolved into an image, of some sort of courtyard bounded in by stone walls; on the far end it opened up to a narrow, flat staircase leading to a tall hill, dominated by a simply  _massive_ (albeit bare-branched) tree. The courtyard itself played host to a zen garden with several large boulders amid carefully raked white sand, but no vegitation; together with the dead tree and uncomfortably static black sky, it was a rather bleak scene. There was no sign, however, of a furrow like on their end, so Shingyoku tapped the image once more.

It faded away, replaced by a view into some sort of tunnel; Reimu couldn’t make out much aside from brown rocks; the rest was cast in darkness, with only a slight prick of light in the distance. But from what they could see, this didn’t seem right either. “That would rule out the Netherworld and Old Hell,” the gatekeeper sighed. “And Heaven is presently inaccessible due to other circumstances, leaving you only one additional option...” With clear reluctance, he changed the image again; at first it didn’t seem too different, but the rock here had a reddish hue and the cavern seemed much better-lit… and leading straight to the bottom of the view, there was a fissure running through the tunnel floor into the distance.

“New Hell. Naturally.” She grimaced, turning back to Reimu. “Are you  _sure_ you don’t want to wait until you’ve got at least a  _little_  training? It’s called Hell for a reason, after all.”

Reimu shook her head, standing up again and squaring her shoulders. “Nope. I’m ready.”

Nodding with uncharacteristic quietness, Shingyoku placed both palms on the image, and pulled them out from each other as if pushing screens aside. In response, a split appeared down the middle of the image, opening up - and on the other side, now physically present, that same reddish tunnel, and a blast of blistering heat emanating forth from it. Making sure to keep the orb ahead of her, Reimu strode forward, only to be blocked by Shingyoku’s outstretched hand.

“You only  _just_  started.” The guardian said, fixing the girl with a melancholy gaze. “Be careful, okay?”

Once Reimu had passed through and the Gate closed behind her, the gatekeeper sighed and slumped down against the smooth surface. “I hope I’m not sending her to her death.” She said aloud, before shifting to male form. “Should I have warned her of the fate of her predecessor?” Guilt entered the tone as he became female once more, trying to reassure herself. “She isn’t going  _there_ this time, so it should be fine. Hell may be a tough place, but at least she’ll come back. She  _has_ to.”

* * *

An old turtle strode at full speed through the forest. For a given value of speed, of course; he was a turtle after all. He could have easily flown directly to his destination, but in the interest of seeing how patient his new charge could be, he instead took the more traditional method. At this rate, he’d arrive in time for some afternoon tea and the initial binding ceremony, and then they could begin lessons properly tomorrow.

Unfortunately, that plan soon proved premature, as he emerged into the shrine's backyard to find a hole in the roof and rubble strewn about. Even for him it didn’t take long to investigate and realize that not only was the shrine destroyed, but the maiden was gone, and the orb with her. Checking through other senses, he found that surprisingly enough, the Great Barrier was more-or-less perfectly intact; perhaps a little weaker than usual, but still within acceptable bounds.

Regardless, he had a runaway student and a shattered shrine on his hands, a far from ideal state of affairs. “Oh, dear,” he stated aloud. “This is… very bad indeed.”

“No kidding,” came from behind him, and he turned to see a young woman leaning against the Torii with crossed arms, her casual pose contrasting with her troubled expression. “By the time I realized something was wrong, she was already gone.”

“Oh, hello. I didn’t see you there, Aunn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: "I must report this to her at once!" Reimu enters Hell, and accidentally unleashes an evil spirit.


	3. First Encounter

**Chapter 3: First Encounter**  
98 Days Remaining

* * *

The first impression Reimu had upon stepping foot into Hell was the sheer  _heat_. Within a minute of entering, she was slick with sweat and her clothes clung uncomfortably to her back. She felt a little lightheaded, too, and she was afraid if she went any further she’d start to boil. So she just focused on putting one foot before the other, pushing the orb along and using her gohei to keep it from straying too far. It was slow and miserable, but she managed.

Fortunately, a while after that the heat subsided a touch, or maybe she just got used to it, because she was able to take in her surroundings properly. As she’d seen before passing through, the walls were made of a dark red rock, banded with shades of bronze, but now she realized there were subtle cracks running throughout, light pulsing in the depths; it reminded her of what wood looked like, burning from within during the late stages of a campfire.

She hurried on.

The tunnel began to slope downward, and she found herself corralling the orb more than pushing it along now. The air grew cooled down to merely miserable and stopped shimmering, and the cracks became fewer and far between - after another ten minutes, the tunnel was completely dark, only the dim white glow from the Yin-Yang Orb illuminating her path now. It was still unbearably hot, but with the blue light from up ahead, she could almost trick herself into thinking she was cold.

Wait, blue light? Before she realized it, the tunnel abruptly opened up into a cavern, large yet somehow still claustrophobic. There were wisps of vapor drifting across the floor, a little too strangely-colored for Reimu to be willing to walk through them, and from somewhere up above a dull light shone down, casting the place in moody shades of black and blue.

But the strangest feature of all were the houses - tiny little stone huts, the top of the arched roofs about level with her neck, each with one side open to show off a single heavily-worn statuette each. There were rows and rows of these things, and it suddenly hit her - they were Hokora, small constructions meant to enshrine lesser kami and spirits. What were these doing in Hell, though?

She continued onward and downward through the cavern hesitantly, uneasiness growing with every step. The vapors seemed to grow thicker the further she went, and her eyes stung and her breathing became labored; it felt like something was stuck in her throat. And of course, it was still unbearably hot. Her throat was parched, but she was afraid to open her mouth and allow the swirling clouds to slide down into her lungs. A muffled wheezing sound echoed throughout the space, and she realized she was the one making it.

Upon noticing that, she tried swishing her gohei through the air, willing the toxic fog to disperse, but it only pressed closer in. Her limbs grew leaden, and she stumbled, accidentally kicking the orb and sending it bouncing away into the mist. “No, wait,” she cried weakly, before bursting into a fit of harsh, convulsing coughs that left her doubled over on the ground, now surrounded completely. Her skin prickled and her head swam and pounded with pain, but still she tried to keep going, crawling blindly on hands and knees before even that proved too much, and she fell prone to the ground. She was suffocating now, helpless and berefit of air.

And then she heard the distant tinkling of shattered pottery.

A moment later, a sudden, intense gale howled through the cavern, blowing Reimu back. The fog was pushed upward and away, all the way back to the distant walls. There the banks waited, looming like waiting spectres, but down here, now, the air was suddenly clean again.

Reimu slowly struggled to her knees, limbs trembling yet functional, and leaned on a nearby Hokora as she coughed her lungs out, bile and yesterday’s meal spattering across the dark rocky floor. That done, she flopped her head back, staring at the distant light, and just  _breathed_. In and out, in and out. She still felt weak, but not quite as close to death as she had mere moments before. Only now did terror suddenly begin to set in, heart beating against her ribs as she realized what had almost happened.

But there was worse, she realized abruptly. In the distance, she could see the orb sitting next to a pile of broken earthenware. Something far more fragile than the surrounding stone constructs; Terracotta? Porcelain? It was impossible to tell from here, and it didn’t much matter; more relevant was the thin stream of black smoke coming from the top of the ruined pile like a teakettle.

Stepping around the pile of sick and using her gohei as a crutch, the young girl stumbled closer to the ruined Hokora, intent on retrieving the Yin-Yang Orb before whatever she’d unleashed could finish freeing itself. But it was too late; she barely hobbled halfway before the whistling died down, and the thick black cloud began condensing into something.

By the time she reached the orb, nudging it away with her foot as fast as she could and letting the zaps from it get lost among all the other pain, the cloud had disappeared. In its place was a dark apparition; a woman with stringy dark green hair and skin that was all too pale, yet decomposed around the edges. She wore a dark blue, almost black dress under a white robe, with a suspicious patch of dull red right over her chest. Only one eye was visible under her hair, yet even that was filled with a terrifying fury as she glared at Reimu with a hate both broad and personal. She was an onryou, a vengeful spirit, and she was infinitely more frightening than Reimu could have expected.

She gulped, and despite feeling rooted to her spot, did her best to begin backing away slowly. The spirit tracked her movement, gaze following the shrine maiden even as she kept entirely still. Reimu could hear the blood rushing through her veins, heartbeat pounding in her ears, and she suddenly realized the spirit was holding a very  _long_  serrated knife.

“Uh, hi,” she said, not really thinking, surprised herself by the action, “Can I help you with anything?” Instantly, she began mentally kicking herself.  _Why the hell did I say that?_

Even more surprising, the onryou’s pose suddenly relaxed, glare softening into a dark sort of mirth. A gurgling raspy sound bubbled up from somewhere deep within her, and Reimu realized it was laughter. “ _Yes, I suppose you could,_ ” she croaked, voice becoming stronger and clearer as she continued. “You look like someone I knew once. Would you happen to be a shrine maiden, by any chance?”

Even her features were clearing up, Reimu realized, the green of her hair going from near-black to a dark olive color, while the bloodstain in her chest evaporated and the decayed portions of skin healed over. She was still unnaturally pale, still lacked legs, and still possessed a certain aura of sheer stark terror about her, but at least she was  _slightly_  less nightmarish now.

“Y-yeah?” Reimu admitted. “Why do you ask?”

The spirit chuckled again. “You look young. Perhaps you aren’t yet aware of certain  _rules_  you’ll be expected to follow. I knew someone like you, called her a  _friend_ , even. But one day, I was just minding my own business, learning the secrets of the universe, and she comes knocking.” The spirit was starting to drift closer, the knife lifting ever so slightly. Reimu began backing away again, not liking where this was going.

“She had a choice between our friendship and the  _rules_ , and do you know what she chose?” The spirit was grinning now, and it was the kind of grin that chilled to the bone. “It’s almost a shame. You seem like a nice enough girl, but there are consequences to choices, and she chose… poorly.”

The knife raised even higher, and Reimu unconsciously raised her gohei in response, uncertain how much she could actually do. “So to answer your question,  _yes_  you can help me. You can help me…  _BY DYING IN PAIN!”_  She abruptly sprung forward with an unearthly, echoing shriek. Reimu leapt to the side, missing the knife swing by centimeters, and spun haphazardly to try to counterattack.

All she succeeded in doing was wave the gohei wildly through thin air as the spirit watched with bemusement several paces away. “You look  _ridiculous_ , you know that?” She said conversationally, but Reimu could see her tensing for another strike. Further away, the billowing vapors that had been cleared from the center of the cavern were beginning to creep back down toward them; Reimu would have to finish this fast.

The spirit suddenly flew at her again, but this time the shrine maiden was ready, kicking the forgotten Yin-Yang Orb with all of her might, and then following it up with a hard slash from her purification rod. The spirit dodged the former, but it led her straight into the latter; she was knocked back with a glowing gash across her chest, somehow tripping in midair over one of the Hokora and falling to the ground soundlessly.

Reimu took a moment to catch her breath, before slowly rounding the small shrine, gohei at the ready. The onryou was splayed out on the ground, gradually fading out of sight. Reimu watched carefully, but eventually she had vanished entirely; the shrine maiden was left staring at the spot, feeling numb and strangely dissatisfied.

Well, best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Glancing around at the toxic clouds as they drew uncomfortably near, she collected the Yin-Yang Orb (no need to break any  _more_  of these things and unleash who knew what else) and scanned for any sign of an exit. There were a few tunnel openings down on the far end opposite of where she’d come in, and she set off toward them, stopping only briefly to examine the remains of her assailant’s Hokora.

There was a small cluster of similar ones on this end of the cavern, looking to have been installed more recently. Where all the others were ancient and worn, yet sturdy, these were artisan-made, glossy from glazing… and incredibly fragile-looking. Perhaps from some twisted coming-down from the stark terror, but she couldn’t help but cluck her tongue and give a disapproving shake of her head. This seemed like a case where practicality was better than looks… and Hell was such a miserably place anyway, she wasn’t sure what the point in trying to spruce it up was.

With that, and a last glance back at the stifling clouds as the closed in, she made her exit; relieved at her survival… and somewhere in the back of her mind, troubled by the spirit’s words.

\---

An hour later, (not that she could tell for sure) Reimu found herself wishing she was back in the cavern. The more intense heat from before had returned in full force with a vengeance, the tunnel walls a bright and molten orange. The air danced and swayed, or maybe she was the one swaying; it felt like her eyes were going to shrivel in their sockets, and her skin was pink and raw all over. For its part, the Yin-Yang Orb seemed to take the slightest outcropping as an attack, rebounding off floor and ceiling in a ceaseless, controlled motion kept barely in check by half-hearted corrections from Reimu. She felt like she was burning up inside, hungry and thirsty and tired with no room for more nuanced thought; the troubled ideas from before put to the wayside in favor of focusing on basic motor functions. She couldn’t afford to collapse now, and so it was that she just kept walking forward.

Eventually, the ceaseless hell ceased, the narrow confines once again leading abruptly into a wide open space. Reimu stumbled to one side, then immediately regretted it - now she was standing over a  _deep_  chasm, and the bridge had a distinct lack of railings.

Backing away carefully and taking a moment to let her head stop swimming, she glanced about in search of the Yin-Yang Orb. Fortunately, it had come to a stop now that the ceiling was no longer low enough to permit its endless rebounding, but unfortunately she also realized something else - the trail of broken rock she’d followed all the way from the entrance to Hell -all the way from her shrine, really- ended here. There was a huge hole in the ground at the trail’s end, and then nothing - a few short feet away, it transitioned to the red marble of the bridge she now stood upon.

She realized with a start that this wasn’t just a particularly large cavern - it was more of a vertical  _shaft_ , the bottom shrouded in darkness while the top, oh so far away, shone with a clean white light. She wanted nothing more than to climb up to that light, escape this miserable place, but the smooth, diamond-tiled walls dissuaded her - not to mention the impossibly sharp spikes rising from the gloom below. This was further reinforced when she noticed warped, disfigured  _shapes_  impaled on some of those spikes, and the horrible smell wafting up from them.

Reimu vowed to herself that, barring an incident, she would never return to Hell again.

In the end, there was nowhere to go but back through the tunnel or across the bridge. In a moment of weakness she did consider taking the tunnel back through to Shingyoku’s temple and swearing off this whole venture after all, but such thoughts were quickly discarded. Besides, something told her she was through the worst of it, and it was an intuition that had served her well before, albeit in more mundane circumstances.

The bridge was still a nerve-wracking crossing, the flat and polished surface providing less-than-ideal traction for her wooden sandals, and on top of that she still had to shepard the Yin-Yang Orb without being too forceful or sending it in the wrong direction. The upside was that the bridge itself was fairly wide, enough that three of the biggest men in the village could pass comfortably side-by-side; she wondered if it was built with or Demons or something in mind. There was a brief scare where the orb went spiraling uncomfortably close to the edge, leading her to accidentally glance down and find a spike waiting right beneath her position, but overall the crossing was thankfully uneventful.

On the other side, she found herself facing a massive arching door, at least three stories tall. In the center but just low enough for even Reimu to reach, hung a huge bronze disk, with the upper half of a woman carved into it. Her eyes were closed peacefully, long wavy hair fanning out behind her, and she held something between her hands in front of her chest… a mirror embedded in the metal.

Huh.

Reimu tried pushing on the door, but it was too heavy, as she’d suspected. There didn’t seem to be any other form of latch or knob, so she turned her attention to the carving. “Hello?” She jumping up slightly to try to look in the mirror, but that didn’t seem to do anything, so eventually she just poked it with her gohei.

“Ouch!” The disk suddenly erupted in pale purple flame, and the woman in the carving  _moved_ , jumping back as if bit and fixing the shrine maiden with a reproachful glare. “That’s  _rude_!”

“Uh… sorry?” Reimu offered, dumbfounded. “I didn’t realize you were… alive, I guess.”

“Oh, let’s just go ahead and touch the doorknocker with the divinely-powered instrument, not like that’ll do anything...” the woman responded with a scoff, but a moment later her expression and tone alike softened. “You’re pretty small, aren’t you?”

“I’m  _aware,_  thank you,” Reimu ground out. Normally she wasn’t so sensitive about her height, but it was starting to feel like everybody she met today had to make that observation. “You’re on a door. One that I’m trying to get through.”

“Oh, yeah, I suppose I am,” the woman responded, rolling her eyes. “I’ve got a name, you know. Kikuri. Or you could call me the Hell Moon, either works.”

“Hell moon? You don’t look like much of a moon to me,” Reimu noted. “I mean, you’re  _round_ , sure, but the similarity kind of ends there, don’t you think?”

“Round? Are you calling me  _fat_?” Kikuri said in mock anger, before relaxing again, even going so far as to set her head on one hand, leaning her elbow on the frame of the bronze disk. She still held the mirror in her other hand, pinkie finger stuck out sardonically as though holding a wineglass. “But no, I guess I’m the spirit of someone who got imprisoned in Hell’s moon, though that was so long ago I honestly don’t remember. At some point someone figured out I could possess carvings in my likeness, so they put them up everywhere, and I’ve became Hell’s unofficial door-woman and messenger girl all in one. The move to the new location was a pain, though…”

“Huh,” Reimu said. “I’m sorry for your loss, I guess.”

“Don’t be,” Kikuri responded flippantly, waving a hand as if to ward off her sympathies. “I kinda like living like this; I get to know when important stuff happens, and I’ve got lots of friends among the higher-ups. I’d just appreciate it if people wouldn’t come poking me with relligious tools, thank you very much.” She chuckled.

“Got it,” Reimu said. Maybe her brain had cooked in those tunnels, because the explanation of Kikuri’s possession was just making her head spin. Best to focus on why she came here in the first place. “Well, if you’re a doorman, I need you to let me through. I’ve come to find someone,” she gestured back at the far end of the bridge, “whoever it was that set off an attack over there. They wrecked my shrine!”

Kikuri peered at her again, as if Reimu’s face was suddenly opening up the secrets of the universe to her. “Oooh, you’re from Gensokyo, aren’t you? I didn’t realize they had another new shrine maiden already. The last one came here  _ages_  ago! She seemed pretty nice; I asked her to come back again, but… she never did.” She set her mouth at a disappointed slant and sighed.

“I can’t imagine why…” Reimu muttered, casting an aside glance at the mounted corpses behind and below. “Anyway, point is, do you know anyone who came through here in the past day?”

“The one who came before her was really,  _really_  rude, though,” Kikuri prattled on unheeding. “Though I think she was also feeling really upset.”

“Do you know anyone who came through here in the past day?” Reimu repeated, tone duller this time.

“She came in carrying a big terracotta birdhouse-looking thing, said something about a vengeful spirit named Mima that she needed to put away somewhere. Left without even saying thanks. The nerve!”

“Do you know anyone who came through here in the past day.” Reimu said again, more statement than question at this point.

“Oh, sorry,” Kikuri said, shrinking back and having the grace to look embarrassed. “Uh, there was Konngara. She came through, walked across the bridge, just stood there for a couple minutes, and then walked back through. I asked her what that was about, and all she said was that it was ‘a favor for a friend’ but ‘probably more trouble than it’s worth.’ Why, do you know anything about it?”

“I think she’s the one that wrecked my shrine,” Reimu said blandly. “Can you lead me to her?”

Kikuri laughed. “Konngara? She’d never do that. ‘Gotta uphold my honor’ and all that,” she parroted in a dopey voice. “You sure it's not someone else?”

“Idunno, you tell me,” Reimu said. “You’re the one who has all the friends around here.”

“Touché,” Kikuri nodded. “Hang on a moment; I’ll be right back.” She settled back into her original pose, and the purple flame vanished. Reimu was left back on her own, on a small rocky shelf overlooking an uncomfortably deep chasm.

\---

Konngara looked out over the massive central caverns of Hell without seeing any of it. She wished she was busy today; fulfilling her duties here was never pleasant but at least it kept her from thinking. When she had time to think, she had time to remember, and time to question what the hell she was doing here of all places to begin with.

She’d lived a long life, come a long way. A mere century ago she’d still been wandering, become an honorary and partook in the founding of a sanctuary. Yet of all the places to settle down, she’d wound up here. Not even entirely by choice, either; someone else was going to fill this position, but got cold feet at the last second, and she’d stupidly offered to take over for them instead. She hadn’t expected the contract to be for so long, and what was worse, she was  _good_ at it. Every time she tried to renegotiate, it ended with Lady Hecatia herself coming down to guilt-trip her into keeping with it. She was at least assertive enough to prevent another decade or two from being  _added_  to the contract, but it still stung whenever she came to her senses. One of these days, she needed to learn how to say ‘no.’

Konngara sighed and lifted her sake dish to take a drink. “Heyo, grumpy! Why the long face?” and promptly spilled said drink down the front of her robes as she jumped in surprise, whirling around to face the small door. (Small by Hell’s standards, anyway; Lady Hecatia had certain architectural tastes, and they weren’t exactly subtle.) The plaque on it had come to life, Kikuri leaning out casually and giving her a sheepish grin. “Sorry to startle you, there…”

“Eh, it’s fine,” Konngara waved her off, moving behind a screen to change into a new set of robes. “What are you here for?”

“There’s a shrine maiden from Gensokyo at one of the doors on the outskirts, near the Temple of Silence. She’s saying some nonsense about you apparently destroying her shrine. I didn’t believe it myself, but she insisted, so figured I may as well humor her.”

Konngara paused in her changing, letting out another sigh. “I did.”

Even if she couldn’t see the plaque from here, Konngara knew Kikuri well enough to imagine her jaw drop in perfect detail. “Wait,  _what_? But didn’t you originally…? Why go back on that now?”

“Yes, I did, and it’s because I had to pay off one last debt. Wandering takes you to some strange places, and I owed a lot to some very powerful people. I… don’t like being indebted to people like that, even if I think this one means well... for the most part.”

“...I see. So what are you going to do about the shrine maiden? Should I turn her away now?”

“No,” Konngara said, stepping out from behind the screen in a somewhat fancier, more intimidating set of robes than her usual. “Go ahead and direct her to the Temple of Silence; I’ll meet her there.” Grabbing her sword and her least-favorite sake dish, the astral knight set off with a grim, resigned expression. “I’ve got to see this through.”

Kikuri stared dumbly, before shaking her head. "Lady Hecatia will want to know about this," she said. "I must report this to her at once!"

* * *

Back in the cavern of blue, a vengeful spirit gradually faded back into view. “So she fell for it. Good.” She spoke aloud to the empty, silent space. The only response was slight whispering from the surrounding Hokora, and the noiseless sound of the volcanic vapors settling into the lower areas of the cavern.

She took a moment to examine herself. The slash from the gohei  _did_ sting a little, she had to admit to herself, but it was already healing up. Someone like her would have to take a  _lot_ more punishment to have been wounded in any significant way... Or rather,  _normally_  she would have, but in her present weakened state, any more than the one would have done her in. And then there was the knife she still carried, the cause of her death, and shortly after, the weapon of her vengeance. She grimaced at it, before casting it away into the darkness.

There was nothing left to do here, so she quickly flew up and across to the lone tunnel entrance leading where she wanted to go. Rushing along like wind through the tight molten corridor was just the thing to shake off any lingering fatigue from her sealing, and soon she faced a shining obsidian slab. A subtle touch, mimicking a different magical signature, and it quickly opened up for her. The guardian on the other side whirled in surprise, but she already had a lazer ready, and they went down fast, mid-transformation.

The vengeful spirit soared into the night sky, relishing the cool air after the oppressive heat of her prison, and lifted her arms in victory, a sadistic smirk splashed across her face. “Ahhh! After a hundred years, I’m  _free!_  Time to conquer Gensokyo!” She shouted.

“Hush,” a youkai below muttered from the treetops. “Some of us are trying to sleep, here. Not  _everyone’s_ nocturnal.”

“Oh, sorry.” She said, sinking a little. Still, though, it was hard to keep from feeling triumphant. Mima was finally free, and nothing could stop her now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: "Yeah. But I'm not the one you need to talk to." Reimu finds the dastardly culprit... or so she thinks.


End file.
